Recommended Anime of January 2013

A few weeks delay of the post but now here we are. Wonder how you like the winter season, and how many series you have followed. We have some really good ones like Tamako Market, Chihayafuru and some of them even surprised us with a really attractive story like Kotoura-san. If you haven’t checked out the new series, jump to our preview guide for a detailed description of them. Also, we have a Poll for you to pick up your favorite series of 2012, don’t forget to send us your votes.

Apart from what we are going to recommend to you in the below list, we have quite a few short series this season, for instance, Yama no Susume (ヤマノススメ), which turns out to be quite promising despite the fact it has less than 5 minutes every episode.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha / まおゆう魔王勇者 (12 eps)

Maoyuu is currently my favorite series of the season. It has a great story with Maoyuu somehow knows everything that a business person should nowadays. Quite good on the education side and the triangle love among our three protagonists are interesting too. If you are looking for a good story as well as great character design, then you should not miss this one.

Da Capo III / D.C.III ～ダ・カーポIII～ (12 eps)

Since followed all the previous seasons of the series, thus it would be improper to unfollow it now. If you don’t care too much about cliches, like girls with deadly weapons, and Harem, as well as story filled with fan services, you should try DC out.

Another series you should follow this season. Our female protagonist Masuzu gives me a feeling of Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari. Yukari does a great job behind the scene and I somehow getting addicted to her voice.

Love Live! / ラブライブ！ School idol project (12 eps)

Saving your school isn’t one of the best scenario to fit your characters, at least we have already seen loads of examples including Girls und Panzer. But the animation did a great job, at least gives the girls some reasons to become idols.

Tamako Market / たまこまーけっと (12 eps)

Another interesting slice of life series featuring a bird with high-tech functions even powerful than your smartphones. It doesn’t matter whether the bird is the protagonist, neither people in the series are all nice and friendly which somehow ridiculous, the series turns out to be quite good as we have expected. Probably it won’t be as good as when comparing to other Kyoto Animation series like Hyouka.

GJ-bu / GJ部 (? eps)

Probably a bit cliche but I personally like the series a lot, guess because I like some characters who has a certain characteristics. It is another slice of life series featuring a cliche club setting. But we are always welcome new voicers to join the Anime world.

Vividred Operation / ビビッドレッド・オペレーション (? eps)

We had a great expectation of the series before airing, and after the first episode, we expectation grew, not the series itself probably, but more and more Oshiri with its great drawings. Suddenly the story itself becomes immaterial and all fans are looking for more fan services. You are not surprised it was directed by the same guy who bring you Strike Witches.

Haganai Next / 僕は友達が少ないNEXT (? eps)

Second season of the series. Compared with the first season, it has a great improve of character designs, but slowly falls into the Harem genre and cliche. Nevertheless, it is probably one of the best series of the season.

Kotoura-san / 琴浦さん (12 eps)

This is probably the dark horse of the season. The character designs seem to let the expectation down before airing but right after the first episode, fans suddenly started to love it and guess that’s what we call the good series. The sale of the original Manga in a couple of weeks outruns the whole year before the airing. The cast list is also quite good and if you may seriously want to give it a shot if you haven’t.

Chihayafuru 2 / ちはやふる2 (? eps)

Second season of the series and we already enjoyed it a lot. There are few reasons that we don’t recommend it since it was once a dark horse in Fall 2011. Still we have a difficult time to determine who the real male protagonist is but it is something else that drives us to continue watch. If you like good Anime, then it is the one for you.